Harold Whitley, a member of New York's idle rich, is upset when the United States enters World War I. Upon learning that married men are exempt from the Selective Draft, Harold urges his fiancée Mary to wed him quickly, but Mary indignantly threatens to break their engagement. At the twenty-story skyscraper that Harold's father is building, Mary meets Jim Kelly, the contractor's son, and is impressed as he rises on a beam. Jim returns Mary's gloves to her Fifth Avenue address, where Harold insults him. At training camp, Jim, enthusiastic about the draft, is promoted to aviation captain, while Harold, who exhibits cowardice as a captain, is released. In France, Jim is knocked unconscious by a shell and nursed by Mary, now in the Red Cross. Jim captures a German raiding party, and after he makes them exchange clothes with allied soldiers, they are shot by their own men. When Mary is abducted by a German prince, Jim pursues on horseback, tumbles over a cliff, swims ashore and arrives in time to rescue her. They then escape in an airplane.

The story opens with George, the son of a building contractor at work on a 20-story structure. He's hard working and happy. In New York there is another type, one often found, a rich man's son who is an idler, who loves the night life and the spending of his father's money. He's a typical snob. To this son is attracted, probably because of their stations in life, the daughter of a millionaire. But one day when she watches George standing smiling on the end of an iron beam, being drawn up twenty stories, with nothing below him but the hard street pavement, she takes an interest in him. Soon George and the rich man's son are called in the draft. She judges the worth of the two in their soldier's uniforms, and despite George's comparative poverty she comes to believe he is the better man. Then the soldiers go to Europe, and she follows as a Red Cross nurse. George, genial, smiling, continues to improve in her estimation, while the rich man's son, still a snob and disliked by his fellow soldiers, fades from her esteem. When George, battling for all he is worth, fearing nothing in his fight to uphold the honor of his country, saves this girl from death at the hands of the Germans, she places her hand and her heart in George's keeping. When the rich man's son sees that his idleness and his snobbish ways have caused him to lose this girl, whose real worth he had never appreciated his whole disposition changes. He patterns his acts and his conduct alter George's and becomes a credit to himself, to his family and to his country.—Moving Picture World synopsis

Meeting upon an iron beam, twenty stories above the street, the Boy and Girl become interested in each other, though a wealthy rival makes things hard for the Boy until both are drafted for the National Army. The uniform proves a great leveler. The Girl goes to France with a Red Cross unit and is there when the Boy proves the mettle that is in him.—Moving Picture World synopsis